Fame is the big one. It is the very biggest of all the worldly conditions that people want, and it doesn't even matter if they are famous for a good reason or not. Just take a look at the little kid at school who creates all the problems just to become famous, to be somebody. Getting in trouble and being punished just to be noticed. So fame is very important.
Fame can happen right here. The bird flies into a tree while you are doing walking meditation. Maybe you whistle at it, hoping it would whistle back. What are you looking for? You are actually looking to be famous in the eye of the bird. Yes, it is as simple as that. Whenever you are around a dog, and there is a group of people around that dog, look at your desire to want the dog to come to you first, so that you are famous in the eyes of the dog. And what happens if the dog always goes to the other people? We are obscure, we are not famous at all in the eyes of the dog. This is how much fame can actually touch our whole life.
It is not just fame about being important, getting your name in the newspaper, making a lot of money and getting a top job, it is not just that fame we are looking at, we are looking at every different type of fame and as small it can be. So how can we deal with it?
To develop more contentment inside ourselves, to know we are ok within ourselves, that just because people or creatures are not looking at us and giving us our fame, it doesn't change our Kamma. You do very good Kamma and nobody knows anything about it. Does that change your good Kamma? No. You are going to get good results for your Kamma, whether anyone knows about it or not. Now say you do lousy Kamma and people like it, people think it is great and they give you all this fame, but you know you did lousy Kamma. Is that going to change your Kamma just because people think it is good and give you lots of praise for that? No, it won't change your Kamma. So to reflect on the fact that no matter what type of fame you get, it won't change your Kamma is very helpful.
There is also something else to reflect on, if you get attached to fame you can go backwards in the practice. Frequently Rosemary and I learn about another Dhamma teacher who gets caught up in fame, and then does something harmful, like having sex with a lot of students and whatever else, and then they are disgraced, they are finished.
If the teacher was a monk, he'd usually get kicked out of the monkhood. And even if the teacher is a Westerner, and is extremely famous, loss can occur. One we know of was actually kicked out of the center that they had actually developed themselves.
So this is the danger of getting attached to fame, it happens for Dhamma teachers, it happens for teachers at school, it happens for doctors, nurses, preachers, Christian people as well. When a person gets too famous, they can get attached to their fame and then they lose the awareness of what they are doing. And then they end up doing unbeneficial actions creating more harm. So to reflect on the Dukkha of attaching to fame can also help greatly to let go of wanting fame.